3-year-old boy found bruised, unconscious at East Harlem home

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EAST HARLEM, Manhattan — A 3-year-old boy was rushed to the emergency room with severe trauma to his brain and heart after he was found unconscious by his mother at their Harlem home on Wednesday, police sources said.

She left her son in the care of her boyfriend while she went to purchase cigarettes around 3:30 p.m., when he called her to say Caleb was choking, sources said.

When Gonzalez returned to her apartment, she found her son unconscious and raced to get him help. Neighbors performed CPR until EMS arrived, sources said.

The toddler was rushed to nearby Metropolitan Hospital and later transferred to Weill Cornell Medicine, with severe bleeding on the brain and around the heart along with lung injuries not caused by CPR, sources said.

Her boyfriend, identified by sources as Justin Ortiz, said the boy’s face was bruised when his head was stuck in a high chair, sources said.

He also said that one of his friend was in the apartment when the boy stopped breathing, sources said.